If it’s June in the Valley, it must be time for Shakespeare in the Sangres at the Jones Theater! This year, the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts (WCPA) is thrilled to announce two major productions: opening with the musical 1776 on Friday, June 19, and then following up with Julius Caesar, opening on Friday, June 26.
Before there was Hamilton, there was 1776–a musical as erudite as it is witty, and a direct inspiration for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit. “It’s hot as hell in Philadelphia…” and the fractious members of the Continental Congress are fed up with John Adams and his radical ideas about American independence during the broiling summer of 1776. It takes the combined wiles of Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson to work on the Congress and push for a vote on a Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
1776, by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone, was first performed in 1969. It went on to win several Tony Awards and was adapted to film in 1972. With infectiously catchy tunes and filled with as much humor as history, this production will be a must-see! Starring Roger Warren as John Adams, Scott Mischnick as Ben Franklin, and WCPA summer intern Aidan Duez as Thomas Jefferson, and featuring a host of other local luminaries such as TC Smythe and Shana Abe.
Click for tickets here. The show runs at the historic Jones Theater at 119 Main Street in Westcliffe: Friday-Sunday, June 19-21, Saturday, June 27, and finishes up on Saturday, July 4. Showtime Friday-Saturday is 7 p.m., and Sunday is 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and active military, and $5 for kids 12 and under. Advance tickets are available at Candy’s Coffee and Arterburn Fine Arts in Westcliffe (cash or check only) or online at jonestheater.com.
For more information, call the theater box office at 719-783-3004 or email wcpa@jonestheater.com.
– Press release by the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts
